I do not despise you, priests;
My faith is the greatest of faiths, and the least of faiths,
Enclosing worship ancient and modern, and all between ancient and modern, 1095
Believing I shall come again upon the earth after five thousand years,
Waiting responses from oracles , honoring the Gods, saluting the sun,
Making a fetish of the first rock or stump, powwowing with sticks in the circle of obis ,
Helping the lama or brahmin as he trims the lamps of the idols,
Dancing yet through the streets in a phallic procession—rapt and austere in the woods, a gymnosophist , 1100
Drinking mead from the skull-cup—to Shastas and Vedasadmirant —minding the Koran,
Walking the teokallis , spotted with gore from the stone and knife, beating the serpent-skin drum,
Accepting the Gospels—accepting him that was crucified, knowing assuredly that he is divine,
To the mass kneeling, or the puritan’s prayer rising, or sitting patiently in a pew, Ranting and frothing in my insane crisis, or waiting dead-like till my spirit arouses me, 1105
Looking forth on pavement and land, or outside of pavement and land,
Belonging to the winders of the circuit of circuits.
[43.1]
One of that centripetal and centrifugal gang, I turn and talk, like a man leaving charges before a journey.
[43.2]
Down-hearted doubters, dull and excluded, Frivolous , sullen , moping , angry, affected , dishearten’d, atheistical ; 1110
I know every one of you—I know the sea of torment, doubt, despair and unbelief.
[43.3]
How the flukes splash!
How they contort , rapid as lightning, with spasms, and spouts of blood!
[43.4]
Be at peace, bloody flukes of doubters and sullenmopers ;
I take my place among you as much as among any; 1115
The past is the push of you, me, all, precisely the same,
And what is yet untried and afterward is for you, me, all, precisely the same.
[43.5]
I do not know what is untried and afterward;
But I know it will in its turn prove sufficient, and cannot fail.
[43.6]
Each who passes is consider’d—each who stops is consider’d—not a single one can it fail. 1120
[43.7]
It cannot fail the young man who died and was buried,
Nor the young woman who died and was put by his side,
Nor the little child that peep’d in at the door, and then drew back, and was never seen again,
Nor the old man who has lived without purpose, and feels it with bitterness worse than gall ,
Nor him in the poor house, tubercled by rum and the bad disorder, 1125
Nor the numberless slaughter’d and wreck’d—nor the brutishkoboo call’d the ordure of humanity,
Nor the sacs merely floating with open mouths for food to slip in,
Nor anything in the earth, or down in the oldest graves of the earth,
Nor anything in the myriads of spheres—nor one of the myriads of myriads that inhabit them,
Nor the present—nor the least wisp that is known. 1130
[43.8]
43.
I do not despise you, priests;
My faith is the greatest of faiths, and the least of faiths,
Enclosing worship ancient and modern, and all between ancient and modern, 1095
Believing I shall come again upon the earth after five thousand years,
Waiting responses from oracles , honoring the Gods, saluting the sun,
Making a fetish of the first rock or stump, powwowing with sticks in the circle of obis ,
Helping the lama or brahmin as he trims the lamps of the idols,
Dancing yet through the streets in a phallic procession—rapt and austere in the woods, a gymnosophist , 1100
Drinking mead from the skull-cup—to Shastas and Vedas admirant —minding the Koran,
Walking the teokallis , spotted with gore from the stone and knife, beating the serpent-skin drum,
Accepting the Gospels—accepting him that was crucified, knowing assuredly that he is divine,
To the mass kneeling, or the puritan’s prayer rising, or sitting patiently in a pew,
Ranting and frothing in my insane crisis, or waiting dead-like till my spirit arouses me, 1105
Looking forth on pavement and land, or outside of pavement and land,
Belonging to the winders of the circuit of circuits.
[43.1]
One of that centripetal and centrifugal gang, I turn and talk, like a man leaving charges before a journey.
[43.2]
Down-hearted doubters, dull and excluded,
Frivolous , sullen , moping , angry, affected , dishearten’d, atheistical ; 1110
I know every one of you—I know the sea of torment, doubt, despair and unbelief.
[43.3]
How the flukes splash!
How they contort , rapid as lightning, with spasms, and spouts of blood!
[43.4]
Be at peace, bloody flukes of doubters and sullen mopers ;
I take my place among you as much as among any; 1115
The past is the push of you, me, all, precisely the same,
And what is yet untried and afterward is for you, me, all, precisely the same.
[43.5]
I do not know what is untried and afterward;
But I know it will in its turn prove sufficient, and cannot fail.
[43.6]
Each who passes is consider’d—each who stops is consider’d—not a single one can it fail. 1120
[43.7]
It cannot fail the young man who died and was buried,
Nor the young woman who died and was put by his side,
Nor the little child that peep’d in at the door, and then drew back, and was never seen again,
Nor the old man who has lived without purpose, and feels it with bitterness worse than gall ,
Nor him in the poor house, tubercled by rum and the bad disorder, 1125
Nor the numberless slaughter’d and wreck’d—nor the brutish koboo call’d the ordure of humanity,
Nor the sacs merely floating with open mouths for food to slip in,
Nor anything in the earth, or down in the oldest graves of the earth,
Nor anything in the myriads of spheres—nor one of the myriads of myriads that inhabit them,
Nor the present—nor the least wisp that is known. 1130
[43.8]
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